It has been brought to my attention that the volume of entries to photo challenges here is not what it used to be! Therefore I am proposing that we relax one of the main conditions and that is the restriction of eligible images to those that have been posted on the e-group photo gallery.

I realise that the gallery is quite out of date and there are so many external alternatives. The gallery is not too difficult to use once you get used to it but I know some members haven't managed to get over that learning curve.

Sadly, I have not yet found an alternative gallery that integrates with the forum. So my proposal is that starting from the next challenge we allow images to be entered that are hosted on external sites like Flickr, Photobucket, Google Photos, etc. The original e-group gallery is not going away and of course entries using the gallery will be accepted as usual.

Yes Ian I am guilty of not joining in;will have to sort that out but having said that and again I am guilty the number of posts containing photographs has dropped maybe the winter so one could be linked to the other. Also a lot of the old familiar names seemed to have dropped out, I do see some of them on other sites so they are still active.

Another point to consider, most photographers have a preferred genre and don't take random pictures just to use the camera. My guess: if the chosen topic for the challenge doesn't align with the member's interests, then the individual doesn't join in. Also worth considering: open the judging to everyone, the photo with the most 'likes' wins. Since photography is so subjective, the opinion of an individual is irrelevant, but a consensus has more chance of being correct.

Yes, good idea.
I find informal competitions on the sites I like (such as this one!) are a stimulus to going out to shoot, and it's mainly laziness that's kept me from entering here. Being able to link directly from Flickr is convenient and reduces the number of things you need to do.

Do not see the logic in limiting entries from the gallery here. Its the photo that's important.

The gallery here limits the photo size to 512kb, whereas the resizing programme on windows using the large setting often produces file sizes in the 600kb size. I know you can reduce the size further my using the medium setting.

Not sure why the entries are so few, is it the subject that does not interest members?

- Allow posting from any source, as per Ian's suggestion
- Have a link to Hi Res version (at least 2048 px longest dimension). Since our cameras as so capable, let's not restrict ourselves to small images!

Judging

- Judging via a poll, rather than the previous winner
- Previous winner can post comments on top three

Winners

- Keep a leaderboard of winners (for the competitive amongst us)
- Allow the winner of each comp to have a "gallery" of their shots as a prominent sticky on the main page ("the prize"), perhaps with some commentary/editorial
- Post winning shot on the Olympus Image Space web-site, or the Olympus UK Facebook page (if Ian can swing it).
- Have a page of all previous winning images ("The best of e-group UK").

Other ideas

- Get some "names" (e.g. Olympus Visionaries) to set a theme and judge the comp from time to time

I take it all enteries will still be posted in the competition thread?
I for one will not be linking out and in to compare entries much better to be able to scroll up and down a post to compare them.
Following on from pdk 42's idea why not post monthly winners in a gallery/ thread for members to choose a yearly winner from all the competitions?

Like David I used to join in to help keep the numbers up and as a fun way to get a topic I would not usually shoot.

Ed, I had to use the TARDIS twice, to travel forward in time to get the MK II and then travel back to 1986 to take the shot. I also had to use the TARDIS to go forward in time to get the 500mm f/4 PRO I used for another entry.

On a more serious note, I will probably never upload a high resolution version of an image to the web. All my originals/high resolution images are on a desktop that's not online. If someone wants a high resolution version they pay for it.

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It's the image that's important, not the tools used to make it.

Answering from my own position, I don't post pics to anything here, although I would like to, (well have tried a couple of times), because of the frankly impenetrable instructions on how to upload images......... Apart from being poorly written, they assume too much knowledge of the site, particularly for those who are occasional users. Also interesting to note how few responses there have been compared to the number of views.